New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has ordered the Cabinet Secretariat to produce before it the papers relating to the appointment of Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.

The CIC, which will examine the material on May 17, will take a call on whether or not its disclosure under the Right to Information Act will affect the privacy of other candidates considered for the job.

The decision by Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah and Information Commissioner O.P. Kejariwal came in response to an appeal filed by superseded Indian Foreign Service officer Veena Sikri. In her appeal, Ms. Sikri claimed that she had suffered "loss and detriment" in her career as well as personally on account of the "unprecedented manner" of Mr. Menon's appointment. Ruling that there was no fiduciary relationship between the Government and its employees, the Commission also directed the Ministry of External Affairs to allow Ms. Sikri inspection of the file containing Annual Confidential Reports of other diplomats considered for the job.

On November 17, 2006, Ms. Sikri filed simultaneously applications under the RTI Act to the Central Public Information Officers of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Cabinet Secretariat, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). She sought to inspect, among other things, files pertaining to the "process and final selection" of Mr. Menon as Foreign Secretary and files relating to the " unprecedented manner and timing "of Mr. Menon's appointment by the PMO/MEA on April 31, 2006, "well before the approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet."

The PMO and the Cabinet Secretariat held the matter to be exempt from disclosure under Section 8 of the RTI Act. In arriving at its decision, the Commission relied on a judgment of Justice P.N. Bhagwati in the S.P. Gupta vs Union of India case: "Even if a document be confidential, it must be produced notwithstanding its confidentiality if it is necessary for fairly disposing of the case unless it can be shown that its disclosure would be injurious to public interest."

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